Exploring linkages between e waste (recovery of minerals),

Exploring linkages between Ewaste (recovery of minerals),
conflict minerals and Green ICT
supply chain

Dr. Sunita Purushottam
Principal Consultant
Infosys


Two problems
Conflict minerals & E-waste

2


The problem statement: Conflict Minerals
The Conflict Minerals Trade Act : Regulation issued by the SEC on
last week of August 2012, Disclosing the Use of Conflict Minerals, was
greeted with a decidedly mixed response by sustainable investors and
other stakeholders.
The regulation requires US corporations to disclose whether their
products contain conflict minerals, including tantalum, tin, gold, and
tungsten, which have been smuggled out of the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC). As armed groups use payments for materials to fund
a conflict which has resulted in the loss of more than five million lives.

3


Where and What?
•

15% and 20% of the world’s supply of tantalum,

•

5% of its tin,

•

about 1% of its gold

•

a small portion of its tungsten.

•

These elements are integral to electronics
manufacturing.

5 million dead
Child labor
Human Rights/ Sexual Abuse
4


The problem statement: E-waste
•

Huge waste volumes

•

Biggest and fastest growing manufacturing
waste.

•

Landfilling of E-waste

•

Informal recycling

•

Trans-boundary E-waste dumping

•

Closing the loop

3.16 million tons
430,000 tons or 13.6 % was recycled,

USA generated
Only

Trashed – in landfills or incinerators or send overseas

5


Challenges in proper E-waste recycling in developing world
• Trans-boundary dumping is common and largely
unregulated. Dealing with imported E-waste and rising
domestic E-waste
• Goods move from developed nations to known and
unknown destinations in developing world
• Improper dismantling leads to soil pollution is among the
other detriments of improper and unorganized e-waste
management and handling.
• Operation of unorganized recycling – scrap dealers
• Little or no regulatory checks on scrap dealers

6


Sustainable Supply Chain
E-waste and Conflict minerals
Exploring linkages

7


Business Ethics and Sustainability issues pertaining to mining – Gone
for a toss?
• Unscientific extraction

• Land Management

• Water pollution- toxic

• Water Management

• Land pollution – toxic waste dumping

• Waste Management

• Worker under gunpoint

• Worker Safety

• What Climate Change?

• Climate Change

• Mine establishment and closure

• Mine establishment and Closure

• Non existent Stakeholder Engagement

• Stakeholder Engagement

• Human Rights violation

• Human Rights

• Community suppression

• Community Development

• Gun culture

• Supply Chain Management

• Militant profitability

• Transparency and accountability
• Business Sustainability

8


Sustainability issues mapped across the value chain
Value Chain

Supplier
Tier 2

Own Operations
Scope 1 and Scope 2

Supplier Tier
1

Supply Chain

Downstream Scope 3

Customers/End of Life

Ethical
Common across the value chain

Upstream Scope 3
Suppliers

Sustainable Supply Chain criteria:
• Supply Chain performance and risk management
• Procurement : Ethical and responsible sourcing
• Product design improvements and environmental
friendly materials
• Material compliance and EOL management
• Logistics Management

Legal
Labor
Health and Safety
Resources
Waste disposal
Air Emissions
Waste Water
Renewables

Extraction/
Raw Material

Value chain
Issues

Suppliers

Pr
od
uc
er

Transportatio
n

 Over extraction

 Labor Issues

 Emissions

 Violations

 Inefficiencies

 Inefficiencies

 Biodiversity

 Audits

 Reputation

Distri

butio
n

 Emissions

Retailer

 Product selection

U
s
e
r

End of
Life /
Disposa
ls

 Compliance
 Use (TCO)
 Product Compliance Inefficiencies  Labeling
 Take back systems
 Local communities
 EHS Compliance  Reverse Logistics
 Recycle and reuse
 Working condition
 Litigations
 Waste management
 Over packaging

9


Increasing demand for Supply Chain Sustainability Disclosure

Conflict minerals disclosure (SEC ruling)
FMD
Wal-mart Questionnaire
EPEAT
Supplier Scorecards

Disclo
sures

EICC Supply Chain
CDP Supply Chain
GRI Sustainability Reporting
EU Waste Directive, WEEE and REACH
End of Life Reporting, EPR
Vodafone, BT Supplier assessments

Consolidating disparate disclosure
information across all countries for easy
retrieval and analysis to inform supply
chain performance

Increasing adoption of SA8000 standards
and other supply chain standards

Note : Mandatory disclosures highlighted in dark

10


Conflict Minerals and E-waste linkages for a sustainable supply chain

Conflict
minerals

E-Waste

Source : UNEP 2007, E-waste Management Manual Volume II

11


E-waste Value Chain
Generation

Step 1

Step 2

Stockpiling
and
Collection
Handling
and
Brokering

Step 3
Processing

Step 4

Producer of EEE
Purchase of EEE
Households

Businesses
End of life

Aggregators
Purchase & Resale
Segregators
Manual Dismantling
Recyclers/ Smelters
Refining and
Conditioning
Distributors of Recovered Materials
12

R
E
U
S
E


Life Cycle Analysis of Materials

• Six key metals - aluminium, cobalt,
copper, gold, palladium, and tin – are
used in the electronic industry.
• Published data on embodied carbon
and energy is available in the ICE
(Inventory and Carbon and Energy)
database for Aluminium, Copper and
Tin.
• Conclusion: mining of metals is energy
and carbon intensive and therefore it
is more efficient to recycle metals for
use in the electronics industry.

Embodied
Energy
(MJ/kg)

Embodied
Carbon
(kgCO2/kg)

Virgin

218

11.46

Recycled

28.8

1.69

70

3.83

Recycled
(High grade
scrap)

17.5

0.96

Virgin

250

13.7

Material

ALUMINIUM
COPPER

TIN

Virgin

No published data for Recycled

13

Reduction of
embodied
carbon in
recycled
compared to
Virgin
85%

75%


Guidelines for Producer - End of Life destination

*Adopted from end of life destination used for automotive sector
14


Building the Sustainable Supply Chain

1


A phased approach to Sustainable Supply Chain
• Waste volumes taken back
Reporting
Monitoring /

Tracking
Engagement

• Percentage of materials sourced
from conflict zones
• Recyclability and reparability
• Support and service, extended
warranty, upgradability

Identification

• Supplier Audits

Setting Goals

• Supplier education and
awareness
• Working with certified suppliers

16


Sustainable EEE Value Chain
Supply Chain Risk Management
Raw materials
inputs

Packaging
Design

Packaging
Manufacture

Product
Manufacture

Distribution

Retail

Use

End of Life

Analytics and Reporting
Ethical and
responsible
sourcing
• Support sustainable
forestry and mining
• Green procurement
policy
• Identify sustainable
material selection`

Product design
improvements
• Material compliance
(as defined for food
safe packaging)

• Alternative
materials
• Define KPIs for use
of recyclable
content/compostabl
e material for new
products

Product and packaging
manufacturing
• Identify methods for
carbon reduction in
facilities
• Identify waste and water
reduction measures
• Material reduction
• Packaging dimensions
• Define KPIs for waste,
energy, water, carbon in
facilities,

Distribution and transportation
• Identify methods for carbon
reduction
• Identify alternate fuel/ modes for
transportation
• Identify methods to reduce
emissions (both carbon and
criteria pollutants)
• Logistic optimization –

synchronize truck loads.
• Track and monitor carbon during
distribution

Carbon and Energy Management
Supply Chain Performance
Assess suppliers to get into the compliant suppliers pool.
Awareness and training,
Supplier self assessment and full audit
Managing the compliant suppliers' pool.

Influencing
Consumers
• Educating consumers
• Exercising sustainable
choice of packaging
• End of life disposal
options
• Work with end users
to collect and recycle
packaging material


Steps to conflict –free electronics
Leading electronics companies are making progress in eliminating conflict minerals from their supply chains,
but still cannot label their products as being conflict free.

Tracing

•

Tracing - Finding the source of minerals in products –
mapping smelters in the supply chain

•

Auditing – Smelters audited by third party through conflict
free smelters(CFS) program

•

Certification – Certification by local government body

Auditing

Certification

•
•

Increase traceability and raising awareness for humane mining
Recovering the minerals from IT disposal could lessen the demand from this deadly source.

18


Leading ICT companies – On Conflict Minerals
• Committed to uphold the EICC code of conduct for suppliers. Direct suppliers to
set public goals to reduce GHG impacts. Commitment to the IDH Sustainable
Electronics program FOR Innovative workforce management

• Intel was the first company to publicly commit to making a fully conflict-free
product within a deadline—a conflict-free micro-processing chip by 2013.
• Intel chairs the review committee for the smelter audit program
• Co-chairs the industry association work group on conflict minerals, has visited 50
smelters, Co-founded a program with HP and GE to pay for smelter audits
• Visited eastern Congo to better understand how the company can have a positive
impact.
HP has been active at multiple levels.
• Require its suppliers to use conflict free minerals
• Co-founded the smelters incentive program.
• Is helping Congo develop a clean minerals trade,
• It also signed onto the multi-stakeholder group on strong SEC regulations.


Leading ICT companies – On E-waste and EPR
• Dell offers free recycling in most places where it does direct business
• Dell provides information for recycling for its consumers in other geographies
• Its takeback program is especially effective in USA

• HP offers hardware recycling services for business consumers all over the world (in 46
countries of its operations)
• HP offers Consumer Buyback in USA

Nokia was one of the founders of the Electronics Coalition, which identified four key areas
of concern in relation to the proposed directives:
• Producer responsibility.
• Industry responsibility for historic waste.
• Responsibility for free riders and orphan products. L
• Looking at substance legislation from a sound scientific perspective.

Closing the loop – Life cycle of EEE
At every stage in the life-cycle of specific products there are
social and environmental impacts, or externalities, on the
environment and on people. In addition, governance, or the
accountability of organizations to their stakeholders for their
conduct, is important at every stage and throughout the supply
chain.

Refurbished
product

Retailer

• Producers of EEE
• Regulator
• Consumer and generator
• Recycler

Consumer

Recycler

• Retailer
• Refurbisher

Collection
Centers
21

Present Situation

Future Situation

Industry

• Resource rich consumption
processes
• Less importance to reuse
• EPR laws formulated
• Design for dump
• Conflict minerals awareness

•
•
•
•

Recycler

• Expectation of profits
• Difficulty in recycling
• Absence of reverse logistics

• Rise of recycling increasing
profitability
• Wide scale reverse logistics
• Recycling centers

Consumer

Future of EEE from different stakeholder perspectives

•
•
•
•
•

•
•
•
•

High consumption
Use and throw
Landfill of E-waste
Rising awareness of E-waste
Rising sustainability awareness
22

Emphasis on process efficiency
Designed for recycling and DFE
EPR laws functional
Sourcing conflict free minerals

Conscious consumption
Proper recycling
Aware about conflict minerals

E-waste management and high
awareness of end of life disposal


Steps to bridging the gap Conflict minerals and E-waste * - recovery and
recycling
Industry
• Adopting product specific approach
• Adopt green PLM*
• Green procurement and sourcing from
conflict free zones
• Assessment of end of life disposal in design
phase
• Industry specific approach
• Strengthen reverse logistics
• Embrace EPR and product stewardship
• Strengthening take back programs
• Alignment of Marketing Strategies
• Market recycled products
• Increase vendor and customer awareness
• Promote discounts for customer returns
• Increased marketing of green raw materials
and green production processes

Government
• Appropriate regulations and global
standards for E-waste disposal and
recovery
• Job generation in the recycling sector by
supportive policies

• Streamlining operations of scrap vendors
by awareness and incorporation into
government authorized vendor list
• Sound end of life management
technology adoption – authorized
recycler list
• Regulated refurbishing and reuse
practices

23

Recycler
• Follow sound EOL management
• Adhere to EOL regulations
• Works towards strengthening
reverse logistics
• Creates jobs
• Creates awareness
• Works with industry for take back
programs

Customers
• Greener electronics – conflict free
• Local corporations to institute take
back programs
• Conscious consumption
• E-waste handed to authorised
recyclers

Ecosystem for Sustainable Supply Chain
Need for Global ICT standards which helps to cut e-waste and make the ICT supply chain greener
PRODUCER
• Set waste recovery targets
• Provide permanent collection
infrastructure
• Remanufacture and reuse - Work
with recyclers
• Required by law to disclose source
of minerals in products
• Amend supply chain policy for
conflict-free sourcing
• Getting smelters audited
• Buying from conflict free smelters
• Help Congo develop a clean trade –
ensuring conflict – free is not
Congo free
• Support livelihood projects to help
mining communities
• Moving beyond law for the next
“supply chain issue”
• Adopt proactive and not reactive
stance to sustainable supply chain
• Systems to address and mitigate
supply chain risks

PRODUCER - DESIGN
• Avoid regulated and restricted
materials
• Design for disassembly

• Use recycled materials where
possible
• Reduce number of material
types
• Eliminate incompatible nonseparable materials

WASTE RECYLCER - RECOVERY
• Improved E-waste Collection
• Efficient collection
infrastructure
• Adopting efficient processing
• Advanced sorting technology
• Improved technology for
recovery

COLLABORATION

GOVERNMENT - REGULATIONS

• Designer, producer and waste
management to define
sustainability aspects of product
design
• Engage in multi-stakeholder
forum on conflict minerals and
E-waste to adopt and learn from
similar industries
• Join hands with other industries
and consortiums

• Promote policies which support
recyclers
• Remove subsidies on virgin
material use
• Introduces SOPs for recycled
material use
• Define roles and responsibilities
for stakeholders in E-waste
management and recovery
• Enforcement of regulation

24


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